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Monday, October 3, 2016

Once
it was announced that DreamWorks Pictures was casting The Girl on the
Train, the film adaptation of the Paula Hawkins' runaway best-selling
novel, the role of Rachel Watson became a much-sought-after part. As
there are not scores of enviable female-leading roles in Hollywood
that represent fully developed and complex characters like Rachel,
the calls for consideration were coming in all over. When the dust
settled, only one name rose to the top: Emily Blunt.

The
Golden Globe Award-winning actress’ versatility has shone in a wide
range of roles in such films as the comedy The Devil Wears Prada and
the drama The Young Victoria to actioners including Edge
of Tomorrow and Sicario. “Emily has tremendous skill as
an actor, and she was our first choice,” lauds producer Marc Platt,
who had previously worked with Blunt on the adaptation of Stephen
Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods. “We felt that she not only had
the skill required, but in all of her characters, there’s something
innately relatable. Rachel is very hard on herself, drinks heavily
and is destructive in her behavior. Emily has the ability to play all
those colors and complexities and darkness but still remain likable,
understandable and accessible.”

Author
Paula Hawkins professed her excitement for the casting, noting,
“Emily couldn’t be more perfect,” and Blunt’s director had
nothing but raves as well. “She is Rachel in a stunning way,”
lauds director Tate Taylor. Even though the story’s setting has
moved across the pond, Taylor insisted that the British performer
keep her accent. “It added to the loneliness and isolationism to
have a person from the U.K. stuck without a life or a husband in
America, and Emily pulls it off fabulously. Audiences will be blown
away by her performance.”

In
the film, Rachel, who is devastated by her recent divorce, spends her
daily commute fantasizing about the seemingly perfect couple who live
in a house that her train passes every day, until one morning she
sees something shocking happen there and becomes entangled in the
mystery that unfolds.

Blunt
first became aware of the phenomenon that was “The Girl on the
Train” through her sister, Felicity, who is a literary agent. “She
told me, ‘This book is selling like quick fire.’ I’d go into
any airport or bookstore and saw that it was the No. 1 bestseller. I
could see people reading it on the subway and on airplanes. So I was
aware of the tsunami of interest before I was approached by the
producers. When they asked if I was interested in coming in, that’s
when I read the book. And I read it in two days.”

The
performer admits that she was struck by just how visceral she found
the thriller to be, and grew further impressed with screenwriter Erin
Cressida Wilson’s work on the script about this “delusional Nancy
Drew character,” as she puts it. “I loved seeing the screenplay
capture Rachel’s intensity, and the fact that it is told in a sort
of blurry sense…because the lead character is an alcoholic and the
most unreliable witness to a crime.

“I
was fascinated by how they were filmically going to capture that
sense of addiction and voyeurism,” Blunt continues, “what we
think we see and don’t, what we think we remember and don’t…and
the blurry lines between all of those aspects.” In fact, that
commitment to unexpected narrative sold her on the story and the
film. “What I loved about the book and about the script is that
they articulately managed to depict broken, damaged women. You don’t
see that in cinema very often, as women are often held in a male
ideal. Both the book and the film strive away from that.”

Blunt
is the first to admit that, no matter the genre or motivation, she’ll
only approach characters that have an unexpected depth. “All you
want is to try and understand the people you play. As the onion
unravels with Rachel, you quickly realize she has a drinking problem
and is incredibly untethered and unstable,” she shares.

“Rachel’s
riddled with guilt, loneliness and desperation, as well as the need
for love and connection, and she finds a great deal of comfort and
solace in the people she obsesses over. They seem like a match made
in heaven, and they know a love she no longer has in her life,”
concludes Blunt. “I have huge empathy for her.”

Opening
across the Philippines on October 05, “The Girl on the Train”
is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia
Pictures.